Center Jason Kelce doesn't believe Eagles O-line is short-handed

Kelce confident Eagles O-line and offense will be just fine, regardless.

Charged with holding a refurbished Philadelphia Eagles offense together this season will be the man in the middle of it all, center Jason Kelce. He'll be snapping to a different quarterback, blocking for different running backs and receivers, and adjusting to perhaps new linemates on both sides.

The changes are being taken in stride.

"We knew something was going to happen with some of the guys," Kelce told The Morning Call. "Going 10-6 is obviously not terrible, but the way we finished the season, the way things went, I know that I expected things to take place.

"I don't know that I expected quite as much, but that's the way it goes. When you're trying to build a team or a group of guys to compete at the highest level, obviously they felt like some changes needed to be made."

Right guard Todd Herremans already has been released and left guard Evan Mathis, coming off two straight Pro Bowl seasons, is engaged in a contract dispute with the team that could lead to his exit as well. For now, he's staying away from all the voluntary portions of the team's offseason activity.

Mandatory minicamp won't begin until June 16.

Kelce is concerned, not worried.

"We have plenty of guys who obviously got playing time last year," he said. "Allen Barbre is a guy who's played a lot of snaps for us. … I think we've got some pieces that can fill in. Who knows what will transpire, but I guess we'll find out.

"I know Matt Tobin and Andrew Gardner can go in there and compete well enough for us to win games. I mean, I think Matt Tobin actually exhibits, on a lot of occasions, some extremely exciting potential. Andrew Gardner is about as good as you're going to get in one of these backup roles. He plays both tackle and both guard positions, and when he played for us last year, he did an outstanding job starting too."

The return of Mathis would make things a lot easier, however.

"It's not good that he's not here, obviously," Kelce said. "But I've had dialogue with him and he's a guy that I have tremendous respect for and a guy I've played with my entire career to this point. So he's been a great player in this league ever since I've been with him.

"I don't know what else to say. It's just unfortunate that sometimes there's differences between the organizations and the players."

Bottom line, though, is that the Eagles survive and maybe even thrive in a worst-case scenario.

"If Evan isn't with us, I still feel like we have a very good offensive line, an offensive line that's going to be very capable, especially with the running backs and the system we run, of picking up yards on the ground and protecting our quarterback," Kelce said.

However, he did point to the importance of the upcoming minicamps for fitting all the new pieces together before training camp.

"Any time you have more pieces coming in, especially on offense, obviously the OTAs [organized team activities] mean a lot more," Kelce said. "If we were returning everybody on offense, there's a certain amount of chemistry. But whenever you have incoming pieces, you have to focus to incorporate those pieces into the offense."

And then there's the health issues. Barbre actually only played a few snaps in the season opener last year as the temporary replacement for right tackle Lane Johnson, who missed the first four games due to a performance-enhancing drug suspension. Barbre then went down for the season with an ankle injury early in that game.

Mathis and Herremans also missed good portions of the season with injuries, as did Kelce following a hernia that required surgery, forcing him to miss four games. Even after he came back, he wasn't the same and went through the rest of the season at less than 100 percent.

Now?

"I've done a lot of work this offseason so far," he said. "I've stayed in Philly for the entire year, pretty much. I started actually doing some Pilates, believe it or not, to help with the recovery in my groin and my core, based on some of the recommendations I had from Chip and some of the other guys around here. And on top of that I've just been working out in the weight room the entire offseason."